The Urban Metrosexual Gets A Tech Upgrade

Dominic Basulto gives the term ‘metrosexual’ a tech upgrade in his post “Meet the Urban Datasexual,” in which he parallels the metrosexual to those who collect large amounts of personal data. The “datasexual” loves technology and the digital world. Instead of focusing on their clothes and their style, they enjoy collecting, recording and analyzing personal data, and are fond of infographics, data visualization, and the quantified self movement.

The same cultural zeitgeist that gave us the metrosexual – the urban male obsessive about grooming and personal appearance – is also creating its digital equivalent: the datasexual. The datasexual looks a lot like you and me, but what’s different is their preoccupation with personal data. They are relentlessly digital, they obsessively record everything about their personal lives, and they think that data is sexy. In fact, the bigger the data, the sexier it becomes. Their lives – from a data perspective, at least – are perfectly groomed.